Painted on frets.

I have a friend that has a fretless 5 string Peavey. It sounds great and all, but he painted on his frets in order to have a clue where to put his fingers. Is this a smart idea or just an amature thing?

I guess that all depends. Does he ever intend to sell the bass. If not it probably doesn't matter. I don't think I have seen an unlined fretless Cirrus ever. If I wanted lines on a fretless, though, I would either get fretlines put on by a luthier (some nice maple ones maybe) or I would trade up and get one that already had one (probably cheaper).

I don't know if I would say it's an amature thing because a lot of the more pricey fretless's even have fretlines.

I just know that I wouldn't even buy a fretless with them. I don't look down on players because they have the fret markers though. (Heck, even Ed Freidland has a fretless with fretmarkers)

Fretless's aren't as hard to play as some people make them out to be. (Unless your try to play one drunk )

As long as you have decent technique on a fretted and your fretless has the dots on the top of the neck. (Not sure how common the dots are though) You shouldn't have any problem. (I just gave about the same rant in another thread. )